That Dan Reeves and Mike Shanahan dislike each other is no
exaggeration. It is a feud with an intensity that is rarely seen in the
stoic coaching world of the National Football League. But instead of
consuming the two men, as such emotions can sometimes do, this feud has
created one of the strangest rivalries in sports.

In many ways, their disdain for each other has pushed both men
toward the excellence that has put them in Super Bowl XXXIII, where
Shanahan's Denver Broncos will play Reeves' Atlanta Falcons on
Sunday.

``It is pretty ironic, all of this coming together,''
said Broncos quarterback John Elway, who started his first game for
Reeves in 1983. ``The relationship with Dan, for both me and Mike, just
didn't work out. Now, we're all going to play each other. That
is strange.''

The problems between the two men began in the late 1980s when
Reeves was coach of the Broncos and his relationship with Elway had
become so strained that Reeves began to think that Elway and Shanahan
were plotting against him, scripting plays behind his back.

Reeves finally fired Shanahan for insubordination after the 1991
season. Instead of wrecking Shanahan's career, though, the firing
rejuvenated it. The San Francisco 49ers hired him as their offensive
coordinator and then he became head coach of the Broncos in 1995, two
years after team owner Pat Bowlen had fired Reeves. Reeves would go on
to New York to coach the Giants for four seasons, get fired again, then
join Atlanta and turn the Falcons franchise around in just two years.

But Shanahan and Reeves would never forget - or forgive - each
other. And each man has wanted to prove something in this most personal
of rivalries: Reeves that he could win without Shanahan - something many
have questioned - and Shanahan, that he could win a Super Bowl without
Reeves.

Both have been proved right. Reeves has taken the Falcons to an
improbable 14-2 regular-season record and then led them to the Super
Bowl with a stunning upset of the Vikings in Minnesota in the conference
title game. If the Falcons beat the Broncos, it will be Reeves'
first Super Bowl championship as a coach after failing three times with
the Broncos - all while Shanahan was an assistant with the team.

Shanahan has already won the championship that has eluded Reeves.
The Broncos upset the heavily favored Green Bay Packers in the Super
Bowl last season and, if they can win the title again, Shanahan will be
regarded as one of the top coaches in the game.

Perhaps most important to these two, one will have defeated the
other in the NFL's ultimate game.

Oddly, Shanahan and Reeves have prospered from their rivalry,
according to friends of the two men. They have used each other as
motivation, pushing to succeed not solely because of personal pride, but
because one wanted to prove to the other that he was better. It has been
a competitive, long-distance race, one of the great grudge matches in
football.

``They watch each other, and if one messes up, the other loves
it,'' said an assistant coach who has worked with both men.

``There is no question that Mike is working extra hard right now,
because it would torment him forever to lose to Dan in the Super Bowl,
and Dan is working extra hard for the same reason,'' said the
assistant coach. ``That is how much they hate each other. They would
rather fall off a mountain than lose the Super Bowl to each
other.''

Another assistant who has worked with both Shanahan and Reeves
said: ``Basically one wants to prove that the other can't coach,
then rub his face in it.''

The bitterness of the feud, and its public nature, has even shocked
some players. Denver tight end Shannon Sharpe, who was drafted by
Reeves, said: ``I would be lying if I said I wasn't surprised. But
obviously this has been eating at Dan for a long time.''

When Reeves was coaching the Giants, he would scan the papers for
news about Shanahan. If the Broncos lost, Reeves would mock Shanahan in
front of Giants coaches, several of those coaches said last week. When
Shanahan won the Super Bowl last year, one former assistant said Reeves
told him and others that the day was ``one of the saddest of my
life.''

Shanahan has been equally spiteful. In the days following last
season's Super Bowl victory over the Packers, Elway and Shanahan
told members of the Broncos that the organization would never have
reached that point if Reeves had still been the head coach, according to
a Broncos official. After the Broncos beat the Falcons in September 1997
in the only other game in which Shanahan and Reeves have faced each
other, Shanahan said, ``Thank God Dan and I don't have to
play.'' He was only half joking.

Last week's exchange between Reeves and Shanahan spelled out
for all to see just how deep-seated this feud has become.

Reeves opened the discussion last Wednesday after repeatedly being
asked at his news conference about his relationship with Shanahan and
Elway. Reeves finally began talking when he was reminded of a 1993
article in which Elway said it was ``hell'' playing under
Reeves, who once said Elway needed to grow up.

``If John Elway had a problem with me, I'd have liked to have
known about it before reading about it in the newspaper,''
Reeves said. ``That was the biggest problem I had.''

Then, Reeves began speaking of both Elway and Shanahan. ``I had a
lot of great times with those guys,'' he said. ``I can be
cordial to them, I can play golf with them. I won't go out to eat
with them, or go socially to a function with them, but if I was sitting
next to them, I would have no problem carrying on a conversation because
I can look back on a lot of great things.

``There are a lot of things that I've done and decisions
I've made that I didn't enjoy doing that affected
people's lives, but are they going to be over the hurt of it, I
don't think so.''

Reeves said if he had not believed that Shanahan had gone behind
his back to undermine his relationship with Elway, he wouldn't have
fired Shanahan. Shanahan responded last Thursday by all but calling
Reeves a liar, saying the Falcons coach had unfairly questioned his
character. Shanahan added that he and Reeves could never be friends
again.

``I was disappointed that Dan Reeves, if he had a problem with Mike
Shanahan, that he would at least have told me when I was an assistant
coach,'' Shanahan said.

``We were golfing partners,'' Shanahan continued. ``We
were as close as a head coach and assistant coach could be throughout
six and a half years. It just didn't end the way I would have liked
it to end, and sometimes that has something to do with communication.
Perception sometimes on somebody's part, plus people get a little
carried away. What he may have perceived was not the situation, and
I'm sorry for that.''

Shanahan added that the relationship between Reeves and Elway was
already severely strained when he got to Denver.

``Dan Reeves knew,'' said Shanahan. ``Dan Reeves knew his
relationship with John was terrible. There are no ifs, ands or buts
about that. It was a tough relationship from the second year on.
Everybody in this town knows that.''

Said Elway on Thursday: ``It wasn't a fun time. It was a tough
time for everybody. It was one of those things you wish didn't
happen but it did and nobody can change that.''

Shanahan and Reeves seemed like a great match. Reeves hired
Shanahan out of the University of Florida in 1984, where Shanahan had
earned a reputation as a great offensive thinker. He made Shanahan
wide-receivers coach and just one year later promoted him to offensive
coordinator. Shanahan kept that job for three years before becoming
coach of the then-Los Angeles Raiders in 1988. He was fired from the
Raiders only four games into the 1989 season, then rejoined Reeves as
quarterback coach.

Shanahan's value was undeniable. Elway loved his
quarterback-friendly schemes, and it is no coincidence that under
Shanahan as offensive coordinator, Elway went to two Super Bowls and had
60 touchdown passes and 48 interceptions. Elway also compiled all but 13
of his 41 fourth-quarter comebacks under Shanahan.

When Shanahan was with the Raiders, Elway tossed 22 touchdowns and
27 interceptions.

To Elway, Shanahan also served as a pseudo-therapist, since he
listened to many of Elway's complaints about Reeves, the chief one
regarding what Elway believed was extremely conservative play-calling.
Reeves feels that even by listening to Elway - instead of stopping such
conversations dead in their tracks - Shanahan was being disloyal.
Everything quickly deteriorated after that.

``There were a lot of people hurt in the whole
situation,'' said Elway. ``It wasn't just us three. There
were a lot of people hurt in our families, Mike and mine and his. The
thing I regret is that it got to this point. But it did.''

Late last week, Elway summed up the story perfectly to a teammate,
telling him, ``I think you will see two guys in the Super Bowl who will
really want to beat each other to a pulp.''

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4 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) ``There's still a lot of hurt that won't
ever go away. You never forget those things.''